Today, though, we can provide some new official casting news, instead of just continuing to stir the pot. Warner Bros. has confirmed three additions to the Batman vs. Superman cast, in the forms of Oscar-winner Holly Hunter, along with lesser-knowns Callan Mulvey and Tao Okamoto. Hunter is new to the world of mainstream comic book adaptations, though many know her as the voice of Elastigirl from Pixar’s animated superhero feature The Incredibles (as well as her many film roles and work on the TV show Saving Grace).

Mulvey, by comparison, played Greek warrior Scyllias in last month’s 300: Rise of an Empire (which Snyder co-wrote and produced), and portrays the character Jack Rollins in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the latest Marvel Studios release, while Okamoto was Hugh Jackman’s costar/sort-love interest Mariko in the most recent X-Men film to hit theaters, The Wolverine. Here is Snyder’s official statement, with regard to these new cast additions to his upcoming DC superhero feature:

“Holly has always been one of my favorite actresses; she has immense talent and is always captivating on screen. I had an opportunity to meet her a while back and knew instantly that I had to work with her, so as we began writing the script I made sure to create a role specifically for her.

“I just had the good fortune to work with Callan on ‘300: Rise of an Empire’ and was very impressed with his incredible talent,” the director continued. “He’s a fantastic actor and I’m looking forward to having the chance to work with him again. And, quite simply, Tao is a striking presence whose beauty is aptly rivaled by her amazing abilities as an actress. I’m really excited to have her joining us on this adventure.”

Callan Mulvey and Tao Okamoto

Now, before anyone starts weaving elaborate theories about who these three people will be playing in Snyder’s next project, it needs to be mentioned that WB’s press release specifically states that their characters were all “newly created for the film.” Not that this will – or even necessarily should – prevent fans from considering the possibility that one or more of these new Batman vs. Superman characters will have a secret identity.

That said, it’s highly doubtful that such is the case. There have been situations like that in past DC movies – see when Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard were cast as “new characters” for The Dark Knight Rises – but, in those instances, the star power of the actors brought onboard was a giveaway that something fishy was going on. Mulvey and Okamato, while they’ve done fine in supporting roles, are not in the midst of a boom in popularity (yet), while Hunter seems more likely a fit for a down-to-earth role (though, you never know…).

Regardless, these casting additions do nothing if not stoke our interest in finding out just what exactly Snyder is cooking up for Batman vs. Superman, especially now that Goyer’s initial script draft is getting a rewrite by Oscar-winning screenwriter Chris Terrio (Argo). Feel free to speculate about the latest cast additions as you like, in the comments section.

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Batman vs. Superman is currently scheduled to open in U.S. theaters on May 6th, 2016.

He made a role specifically for Holly Hunter? Odd. And he gave high praise to some fairly unknown actors. Not that that should disqualify someone from praise, but it also seems odd. I’m not sure writing a role specifically for an actress is right thing to do.

Except it’s happened before with others over the years and worked brilliantly. Can’t name any off the top of my head right now because I’m drawing a blank but there have been actors and actresses in roles specifically written for them many times in film and TV.

Perhaps not. I think it’s just that it surprised me that the actress for whom he wrote the part was Holly Hunter and, according to this article, was made up specifically for the film. When I initially saw her picture, I was kinda hoping she’d be Hippolyta and get a short cameo scene for the role and reprise it in the WW standalone.

everybody has money dummy its the ones who try to subliminally brag over the internet that need to get help elsewhere then a expert opinion on how the market is doing but by all means carry on just thought ide share that really fast lol

Yeah… Not subliminally bragging. Just pointing out that Supes seems to have the movie all figured out like his future self came back in time and gave him a Gray’s Sports Almanac for box office earnings.

Ummm, you DID read Sups’ comment, right? You saw how melodramatic it was? I matched his overzealous writing to show him how ridiculous he seems. It’s a fairly simple, straightforward approach to a blowhard.

Superman is my favorite superhero and always has been. Bale as Batman was brilliant. Downey as Iron Man was brilliant. Black Widow, Thor, Loki, Odin, were great casts. Cavill is a good Superman. I’m telling you right now, Affleck as Batman is a terrible idea. And I’d still like to see Michael Rosenbaum as Lex.

Are you actually asking us to list the movies that Ben Affleck was good in, or were you trying to be rhetorical?

I know it’s easy to jump on the bash Ben Affleck train, because you probably spend a lot of time on the internet where people enjoy using him as a punching bag, but maybe go check out a couple of his award winning movies? I think you’re jumping to conclusions here.

Also, go read some Batman comics. Bale didn’t even align with the source material as closely as Affleck does, so I’m not sure what your standard is here…

I understand your frustration Sups, but I’m fairly certain that this movie will do justice to both characters. Personally, I’m still not sold on WW, but I can be convinced and it’s more or less beside the point. I don’t think Affleck would have signed up to play his favorite character if the script was bad or if it wasn’t true to the source material (mostly) or if he really thought he’d suck. I’m a pretty diehard Batman fan and I’m ok with this. Give it some time.

When I heard of Ben’s casting I just pictured him in the arkham origins and arkham city batsuit. Now after watching the Arkham Knight trailer and seeing the bat suit for that game I can’t wait and see if costume designers for this movie are taking a similar approach.

well argo, the town and gone baby gone weren’t terrible films and they were all good enough to garner awards and nominations. It’s been a while since Affleck played a superhero and his performance in Hollywood land wasn’t bad either. The guy is also a fan of the source material so I’m sure he will attempt to give it his all and not phone it in. The only flaw with Daredevil was the terrible writing done by a director who repeatedly failed to garner any positve criticism after daredevil. More importantly we still haven’t seen a trailer or test footage of sorts. It’s still early to stamp good or bad criticism on the project.

LMFAO!!!!! Really? Scarjo is a great black widow hahah since when? And Henry Cavill a good superman WTF and Christian bale a brilliant batman your clearly not a fan of the comics your just one of those marvel/dc movie guys…. just shut up ps I loved the cb batman movies but if your gonna say a guy who growls makes a brilliant batman than your just wrong 2 think ben affleck won’t make a phenomenal batman

Jam packed with what? There are only a handful of confirmed roles for this movie. We’re losing Costner, Shannon, and Crowe. Unless you’ve seen the script and how significant each character is, then I think that may be jumping to a conclusion.

Pa Kent, Jor-el, and Zod were killed off in the first that’s why they aren’t going to be in the sequel. But lets face it from the moment that Batman was announced to be in this one WB/DC has been on an all out PUSH to make this a Justice League Movie. They are NOT ready they haven’t given the solo films for Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, or even a new Green Lantern movie. Hell they haven’t even done half the planning that Marvel has with thier Phaseing Technique, they are rushing around trying with desperation to get the money that Marvel has been making hand over fist. Does Wonder Woman need to be in this? No she doesn’t, sure an after credits scene is fine but in the whole “Movie” itself no. Marvel atleast knows how to tease the audience into wanting to see the next movie that’ll be coming out with a glimpse of what’s to come. I really do want to see this movie succeed I REALLY do don’t get me wrong there, but WB/DC feel like their dropping the ball with the feeling of it being a rushed Justice League movie.

So far all we know is that this is a superman movie with batman and wonder woman.

Also wb president said we should have some news about dc plans in the near future. We can see from gal gadots contract that we are least geting a wonder woman solo and a justice league movie. Also batman has been done to death so do we really need to see how mommy and daddy wayne died. The flashes story will be portrayed in the new tv show. And as for green lantern….despite the poor showing of the 2011 green lantern movie was a decent portral of the hal jorden origin. Now we can recast hal jorden and continue the story in a way like marvel did the hulk and the incredible hulk and then his portral in avengers.

Where is my solo quicksilver movie and you can’t forget his sister? Also falcon is in captain america where’s his movie? Or where is visons movie or black widow or hawkeye? Or heck heck where ismy rocket racoon movie? We are gonna need it to understand where the heck the talking racoon is coming from in gotg.

Do we need all that no….why because they are being introduced in another film. The fact that wonder woman is going to be in the film isunclear. If as you say you look foward to this film then look foward to the trinity movie a movie about three of dc comics most well known and loved heroes. Stop thinking marvel is the lone way to go and watch the film. If you don’t want to then dont but why try to ruin it for those looking foward to the movie with your debbie downer atitude.

Ugh. I am so sick of all you people saying DC should follow the same formula Marvel did. Marvel HAD to introduce their characters first because quite frankly, mainstream audiences didn’t know who they were! Everyone knows who Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are, and thanks to GOOD animated shows like Justice League, people generally know the rest. Just let DC do their thing. If they want to lead with a Justice League movie, more power to them. If they want to follow up with a standalone movie for all the rest, so be it. It seems you all forget that Marvel didn’t do standalone movies for Black Widow and Hawkeye before Avengers was released. They only appeared in Ironman 2 and Thor beforehand. If they had made a Hawkeye or Black Widow standalone movie before releasing The Avengers, I imagine they would have done quite poorly, which is probably why they did it the way they did. Even now that Black Widow is getting her own movie, I have no interest in seeing it.

WB has obligations other than DC Entertainment. MoS is not the first film in a “Superman fanchise” but a foundation for a “JL franchise”, and I say this as a hardcore “Kal-Elite”. Marvel can afford to churn out 2 merdiocre CBMs/year and one good to great CBM/half decade because they ONLY make CBMs. Read link for more depth

I love how people still continue to be immature about this movie when we all know they’ll be the ones getting the most excited when it’s about to release. That is, if their parents give them just enough allowance to go see it that weekend.

It’s sad to hear people try and make fun of it because no matter what they do someone will always try to shoot it down. That is probably why they don’t listen to fans. A majority of people don’t even know this movie is coming out and the ones that do still think it’s coming in 2015.

Sounds like they’ll all be pretty minor characters. I just want to see something, anything. An updated logo, Supes new suit or something to do with Batman. I know it’s two years away but, hey, I’m a greedy guy.

On an unrelated note, can you stop that titanfall ad expanding on every single page, I don’t use adblock on this site as per your request, but might have to start using it as that ad is really annoying

People down on Affleck should know that his casting only elevated my interest in this project… to something approaching lukewarm. MOS was a disjointed mess. The first third felt rushed, the flashbacks kept interrupting the story just as it seemed to get interesting, don’t get me started on the laughable Pa Kent/hurricane scene, and the ending was just a variation on the “It’s finale time, let’s just destroy as much scenery as we can” (see also Avengers, IM3, Thor 2 and [spoiler]).

I have said from the get go that this movie was going to suck.
Holly Hunter? really? I can only name 2 movies that she had that were hits – ‘Broadcast News’ and ‘Raising Arizona’, and both of those were from 1987…
And as far as Affleck and his mega talent is concerned, I have one word for you – ‘Gigli’

With casting decisions like these, it is obvious as to why Marvel is taking home all the box office cash.

How exactly is this casting news any indication on the quality of a movie? Though I’m a bit indifferent about this movie, probably leaning toward skeptical, I too would be happy to hear Hunter’s name because she’s a well-established and Oscar-winning actress, (whose Oscar-winning film you forgot to mention) no matter how many box-office hits she may have had. I don’t see Marvel with a proportionally larger amount of talent recognizable to movie-goers. It’s not exactly like people go to see Captain America for Chris Evans; they go to see it because it’s Captain America. The only name that Marvel can be sure to sell a movie alone is Robert Downey Jr. And the reasoning that Marvel movies rake in more cash is also no barometer of quality, only one of monetary success.